Descentralización y democracia en Chile: Análisis sobre la participación ciudadana en el presupuesto participativo y el plan de desarrollo comunal

Abstract

This paper contributes evidence to the premiss that the deepening of citizen participation in municipal management does not only depend on greater transfers from central government's levels or external incentives at municipal levels, but is also related to a qualitative change in municipal management in the local space. When this change takes place on a local level, deep initiatives of citizen participation can be achieved. The methodological strategy used was a comparative study on citizen participation in communal development plans and participatory budgets. The selected cases were Illapel, Cerro Navia, San Joaquín, Buin and Negrete.